Emotions: the new focus of brain injury rehabilitation
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A new study could change the way people with brain injuries are rehabilitated.
Many brain injury patients lose their ability to respond appropriately in social situations.
The University of New South Wales study says rehabilitation has traditionally focused on training patients to act in positive ways and trying to restrict undesirable behaviour.
But the study's lead author, Dr Cristina Bornhofen, says research shows there may be better results if they are instead trained to perceive the emotions of others.
"Interest in social cognition in the area of traumatic brain injury has grown," he said.
"Social cognition kind of encompasses broad concepts like understanding social situations, but also being able to perceive specific social cues like facial expression, body language and voice tone."
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